On Hayden Road, McCormick Ranch's New Restaurants Are Built for Bigger Tables

"It kind of feels like Arcadia," chef James Fox told Phoenix New Times when he described McCormick Ranch, the area he and his wife Raenee picked for Vecina's second location. The Foxes may have come for the neighborhood feel, but the space they took isn't small. The new Vecina is nearly three times the size of the Arcadia original. It has a lakeside patio, room for large parties, and a community table that seats 10 to 14.

The size matters because a pattern runs through every change on this stretch of Hayden Road and Via de Ventura since spring. New openings bring patios, buffets, private dining and group seating. The two closings were smaller, chef-driven rooms. One of them is still open, but only for booked events. Once you see that, the corridor's dining map makes more sense, and it's easier to guess what the next year will bring.

Seven addresses, one season

Here's every confirmed change in and right around McCormick Ranch since May, in the order it happened.

Vecina is the most-watched of the openings, so it's the best place to start.

The old Z'Tejas, at three times the scale

Z'Tejas left a gap at Hayden Road and Via de Ventura when the chain closed all its Arizona locations in June 2025. Vecina opened there on Friday, Sept. 18. It brings the reputation of a restaurant that was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2020 and still appears on New Times' list of the Valley's top 50 restaurants.

Today, about two and a half weeks after opening, Vecina serves dinner only. The chef plans to add lunch in the coming months, and the extra space gives him room to add brunch and happy hour, along with more from the wood-fired grill and a raw menu that includes oysters. Regulars from Arcadia will recognize the Faroe Island salmon tacos with yuzu kosho aioli, Cara Cara oranges and grapefruit. The online menu also lists sea bass ceviche, gambas al ajillo, pork belly tacos and a mesquite-grilled ribeye.

Two touches tie the room to the neighborhood. The Scottsdale menu includes a frozen cocktail that nods to Z'Tejas. Inside, a floral mural by Tato Caraveo in sunset reds, pinks and yellows echoes the wall at the original Arcadia location. James Fox describes two ways to use the space. You can have a quiet date night on the patio, "or can you have a 10- to 14-top at our community table and really go all out."

The community table and the private dining room aren't add-ons here. They're part of the reason Vecina picked this space.

Where the smaller dining rooms went

Campo Italian Bistro & Bar served its last dinner on Friday, July 31, at 8260 N. Hayden Rd. It had been there a little over five years. PHOENIX magazine reported that the closing followed the recent departure of chef Jeremy Pacheco. The space is open for a new tenant, and no replacement has been announced.

Saint Urban's change is the clearest example of the pattern. Chef Christopher Collins opened the wine bar at Hayden and Royal Palm roads in November 2024. It poured 30 rotating wines and served a shared-plates menu that ran from raw bar bites and charcuterie to wings and a 45-day-aged New York strip. As of Sept. 28, it's the Saint Urban Private Dining Room, which hosts holiday parties and private events. Diners who had reservations were rebooked at other restaurants run by Collins's company, Common Ground Culinary.

The room didn't go dark. It switched from walk-in dining to booked events, and the restaurant group's statement said "dates are already booking through the end of 2026 and into 2027." Common Ground Culinary also runs three of its other restaurants in the same shopping center, so Collins is still a big presence at that corner.

So within one quarter, the corridor lost a small wine bar's raw bar and gained a raw menu with oysters a short walk away at Vecina. And the group bookings that once filled Saint Urban's tables now fill its calendar.

Patios and buffets in between

The spring and summer openings fit the same pattern. Starfish Scottsdale opened May 5 at 8390 E. Via de Ventura, serving coastal Asian dishes with a 1,400-square-foot patio. In July, Bombay House, the Tempe Indian restaurant, opened its second location at 8140 N. Hayden Rd. PHOENIX magazine described its lunch and dinner buffet as "abundant."

A patio that size, a buffet and a 14-seat community table are all built to serve more people at once. With October weather, the patios at Starfish and Vecina are the two newest outdoor tables in this part of McCormick Ranch.

What fills in next

Two projects are coming, and they arrive on very different timelines.

The first is close. Chef Matt Carter's Dash is expected to open in November at 9619 N. Hayden Rd., Suite 101, a little north of the Via de Ventura cluster. It's built as an all-day stop, with coffee and pastries, sandwiches, Roman-style pizza, charcoal-roasted chicken and soft serve. That gives the corridor a daytime and casual option while Vecina is still dinner-only.

The second is a bigger version of the same shift. On Sept. 24, Diversified Partners broke ground on The Lakefront at Scottsdale, near Scottsdale Road and McCormick Parkway. The project redevelops a 100,000-square-foot building that has anchored McCormick Ranch since 1978 into office, retail and restaurant space. "It's kind of been this crown jewel that no one had access to because it was a corporate office," CEO Walt Brown Jr. told ABC15. Three restaurants were announced at the groundbreaking: La La Land Kind Cafe, V Modern Italian and Sushisamba. The developer hopes to open the first of them by Nov. 1, 2027, about 13 months from now. Until then, the project is a construction site and a list of names. The timeline is a target, not a promise.

Vecina turned an empty lakeside chain restaurant into a bigger room with a patio. The Lakefront plans to do the same with a lakeside office building that, in its developer's words, no one had access to.

A group-friendly calendar for the rest of the year

If you're planning group outings through the holidays, these are the dated stops near the Hayden corridor:

1. Now through Oct. 31: Spook-Track-Ula at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, 6 to 9:30 p.m. nightly, with train and carousel rides, a haunted walkthrough and a new story train for kids.
2. November: Dash's expected opening on North Hayden Road. No specific day has been announced.
3. Nov. 27 through Dec. 30: Holiday Lights at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., closed Dec. 24 and 25. The park's event page lists these dates under a "Holiday Lights 2026" heading, but its detail section still labels them 2025, so check with the park before you plan around a specific night.
4. Late 2026 into 2027: Holiday parties and private events at the Saint Urban Private Dining Room, which is already booking dates.
5. Nov. 1, 2027: The target for the first restaurant openings at The Lakefront at Scottsdale.

The one open question on the corridor is 8260 N. Hayden Rd., Suite A102. That's Campo's former space, which is still waiting for a new tenant.

If you own a home in McCormick Ranch, changes like Vecina's arrival and the Lakefront redevelopment are part of how buyers see your corner of Scottsdale. Joseph Fear and the Inspired Real Estate Life team track them block by block. If you're curious where your home stands as the Hayden corridor changes, ask us for a Personalized Market Plan.